Questions tagged [sound]
Questions regarding the generation of sound in retrocomputers.
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Is there a line printer sound simulator?
To improve "authenticity" of a mainframe simulator and for an additional nostalgic effect, I'd like to add sounds of a line printer to it. They should be similar enough to the original sounds for ...
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Did any retro computers ship with the SP0256-AL2 speech chip or its equivalent?
The SP0256-AL2 Speech IC was a popular solution for text to speech translation but is now out of production. There where several other chips that entered the market but as far as I know did not have ...
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Which machines, other than the PC-Engine, uses custom-waveform synthesis for sound?
The most common way retro machines made sounds were with programmable sound generators (PSG); there was a bunch of square waves, saw waves or noise channels at disposal. When technology evolved ...
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Can't get the AY-3-8913 sound chip to work with my z80 (added schematic)
I'm trying to get the ay-3-8913 sound chip to work with my z80 but so far I haven't gotten any sound output yet. I know the chip, my amp circuit and the clock circuit work because it works when I ...
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Why do all the Speech Synthesizers have that same Voice?
The first time I ever played with software speech synthesis on a microcomputer (not hardware synthesis, like in TI's Speak & Spell) was around 1983, using S.A.M for the Commodore 64.
A year later,...
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Why did the IBM PC need a sound card?
The original IBM PC and later variants used an Intel 8253 or 8254 as a sound chip. Why did users add sound cards such as the Adlib or Sound Blaster. I remember voice output with programs like ...
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CPU speedup breaking sound compatibility
In the old days, it sometimes happened that a computer with a compatible but faster CPU, had problems running old games. For example, Sopwith was written for an 8088 PC; it was amusingly challenging ...
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Sound chips in 1977
By the early eighties, there were a variety of off-the-shelf sound chips suitable for use in home computers and arcade games.
What about 1977? That seems to have been just a little early; I'm not ...